Nursing Home Neglect

Schuylkill Nursing Home Abuse Attorneys

When your much-loved parents or grandparents grow infirmed or too frail
to care for themselves or require rehabilitation, you look to medical
professionals in a nursing home to provide them with a comfortable lifestyle.
When that trust is broken, and your family member is injured or killed
due to the negligence and abuse of a nursing home medical professional
or other staff members, you and your family deserve justice. At The Law
Offices of Anthony Urban, P.C., we proudly represent victims of nursing
home neglect or abuse to help them seek compensation to help cover the
cost of additional medical bills, pain and suffering, or funeral costs.

Examples of Nursing Home Neglect

About one in every 10 elders aged 60 or older are abused, neglected, or
exploited while living in a nursing home or assisted living facility.
In such cases, neglect is defined as an unreasonable failure of a caregiver
to provide an elderly patient with safe, appropriate care. Many elderly
patients have specific, wide-ranging needs that must always be met. Even
in cases where an elder needs acute and unique care, there is no excuse
for their caretakers to ignore them or let harm come to them.

Common examples of neglect in a nursing home include:

Fall risks

Malnutrition

Dehydration

Unclean living conditions

Incorrect medical care

Prescription medication lapse

Bedsores & Pressure Ulcers

Bedsores and pressure ulcers are among the most common consequences of
nursing home neglect. A bedsore will form when an elderly patient is allowed
to lie in the same position for hours or days on end. As time goes by,
a bruise will begin to form under the skin from the continual, unrelieved
pressure. One of the most important yet basic duties of caretaking in
a nursing home is to ensure bedridden patients are moved, turned, or adjusted
throughout the day to stop the formation of bedsores.

Bedsores or pressure ulcers are categorized into four stages of severity:

Stage 1: Mild abrasion on the surface of the skin, which usually appears red or
purple. It will likely be painful to the touch.

Stage 2: Abrasion deep enough to cause the skin to tear, much like a mild laceration.
It may bleed when the patient shifts.

Stage 3: Deeper abrasion that has reached the fat or muscle tissue under the skin.
The patient will likely experience constant pain and needs immediate medical
attention.

Health complications caused by stage 4 bedsores can be severe enough to
endanger the patient’s life. For example, a severe pressure ulcer
can become infected and eventually cause death through a blood infection
or sepsis.

What is Sepsis?

Sepsis is a potentially fatal complication in which an incorrect mixture
or number of antibodies and chemicals are released into the bloodstream
to fight infection. Rather than killing the infection, bacteria, or virus,
sepsis can cause organ death. Elders with weakened immune systems are
particularly susceptible to sepsis.

Bacterial infections are the most common cause of sepsis in nursing homes.
Elders who are given improper or unclean IVs, for example, may develop
a bacterial infection, triggering sepsis as their bodies try to fight
off the infection. Urinary tract infections caused by unclean catheters,
or catheters left in for too long, can also cause sepsis.

Place Your Claim in Caring Hands

Our experienced Schuylkill County nursing home neglect attorneys have dedicated
their careers to providing exceptional legal counsel to the victims of
negligence. If your elderly or incapacitated loved one has suffered while
under the care of a nursing home or assisted living facility, please let
us know what happened as soon as possible.

After suffering an injury or severe illness and paying hospital invoices
for medical treatments, the idea of hiring an attorney to fight for you
may seem like an insurmountable task. At The Law Offices of Anthony Urban, P.C.
we believe everyone deserves the right to seek justice after suffering
injuries at the hand of a negligent party, which is why our attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. Our firm
will cover the costs of your case up front, and you don’t pay any
attorney fees unless we win you a positive settlement or verdict.

The information on this website is for general information purposes only.
Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual
case or situation. This information is not intended to create, and receipt
or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.